Wii
The Wii is a seventh generation video game console created by Nintendo, and a successor to Nintendo's previous console, the GameCube. It is Nintendo's fifth major home console. The console was initially released on November 19, 2006 in American stores, was released shortly thereafter in other countries, and became the leading console in the U.S.A., Europe and Japan. With over 90 million units shipped worldwide, it is Nintendo's best-selling home console, and 3rd best-selling home console of all time. The console comes packaged with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the most prominent being the former. The Wii Remote is capable of detecing movement in three dimensions and can be held with one hand. The Nunchuk can be connected to the Wii Remote via a long cord allowing for more control. Motions made with the Nunchuk can also be registered through the Wii Remote. Building off the basis of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo is using what they refer to as the "blue ocean" strategy. It is a move to target not only the general gaming public, but also those who have never played games, or those who play very rarely. It has been designed with simplicity and familiarity in mind, which explains the Wii Remote and the Wii Channels. The system is actually incredibly compact, lending itself to extreme portability. It is approximately the size of three Wii cases stacked on top of one another. It comes with a stand as well, so it can sit upright when in the vertical position. To insert a game, there is a large slot on the front of the system surrounded by a glowing blue neon light. The slot can accept the 8cm discs used by the Nintendo GameCube and Wii games on standard 12cm discs. The system also comes with a sensor bar that emits IR signals picked up by the Wii Remote. The Wii is the first console by Nintendo that has the ability to update its system software. It is also the first console since the SNES (Super Mario World) to be bundled with a game at launch, which is Wii Sports. People in Japan, however, must purchase the game separately. Development Beginnings Development of the Wii began right after the GameCube was launched. When developing the Wii, the creators asked themselves what kind of an impact flashier graphics and faster speed would make. The name Nintendo revealed the final name of the console right before that year's E3. Prior to this, the console was simply known as the Nintendo Revolution. Nintendo stated in the beginning that the name was simply Wii, rather than the Nintendo Wii. The prefix "RVL" is used on the Wii and its peripherals. The plural form of Wii is, according to Nintendo, not "Wiis" as some tend to believe, but rather should be "Wii consoles" or "systems". The two lowercased "i"'s in the name are supposed to represent two players enjoying the game together, or the Wii's unique controller. Following the game's announcement, both developers and fans alike expressed their dislike towards the name, with both groups explaining how they felt the name displayed a sort of "kidiness" to it, and how they preferred the Revolution. Reggie Fils-Aime explained that the name Revolution was long and was hard to pronounce in some languages, while Wii would be pronounced the same in every country. Games See main article: ''List of Wii games Hardware When compared to Nintendo's other consoles, the Wii is the smallest of them all (measurements: 44 mm (1.73 in) wide, 157 mm (6.18 in) tall), and certainly the smallest of the three seventh generation consoles (and lightest at 2.7 Ibs, 1.2 kg). It is even smaller than the Xbox 360/PS3 Slim. Similar to the two other consoles, the Wii can be placed on its side or vertically. Unlike the other two consoles, if placed vertically, then Nintendo suggests you use the gray colored stand that comes packaged with the Wii. The front of the console features an illuminated slot-loading optical media drive that accepts both 12 cm Wii Optical Discs and Nintendo GameCube Game Discs. The blue light in the disc slot illuminates briefly when the console is turned on and pulsates when new data is received through WiiConnect24 (this can be turned off). After the update that includes System Menu 3.0, the disc slot light activates whenever a Wii disc is inserted or ejected. When there is no WiiConnect24 information, the light stays off. The disc slot light remains off during gameplay or when using other features. Two USB ports are located at its rear. An SD card slot hides behind the cover on the front of the console. The Wii console is also said to use less than one tenth of the energy that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 use, as well as the average PC. The Wii launch package includes the console, a stand to allow the console to be placed vertically, a circular clear stabilizer for the main stand, one Wii Remote, one Nunchuk attachment, one Sensor Bar, a removable stand for the bar, one external main power adapter, two AA batteries, one composite AV cable with RCA connectors, a SCART adapter in European countries (component video and other types of cables are available separately), operation documentation, and, in all regions except Japan and South Korea, a copy of the game ''Wii Sports. The disc reader of the Wii does not play DVD-Video or DVD-Audio discs. A 2006 announcement had stated a new version of the Wii capable of DVD-Video playback would be released in 2007;[91] however Nintendo delayed its release to focus on producing the original console to meet demand.[92] Nintendo's initial announcement stated that it "requires more than a firmware upgrade" to implement and that the functionality could not be made available as an upgrade option for the existing Wii model.[91] Despite this assertion, third parties have used Wii homebrew to add DVD playback to the original unmodified Wii units.[93] The Wii also can be hacked to enable an owner to use the console for other activities than those intended by Nintendo.[94] Several brands of modchips are available for the Wii. Although Nintendo showed the console and the Wii Remote in white, black, silver, lime green, and red at E3,[95][96] it had only been available in white for its first two and a half years of sales. Black systems were made available in Japan in August 2009 and in Europe in 2009, and Red in 2010 for the 25th anneversary of Mario[97][98] 9] On July 11, 2007, Nintendo revealed the Wii Balance Board at E3 2007 along with Wii Fit.[100] It is a wireless balance board accessory for the Wii that contains multiple pressure sensors used to measure the user's center of balance. Namco Bandai produced a mat controller, a simpler less sophisticated competitor to the balance board, that connects to the GameCube controller port. The disc loading drive on the front of the console has a neon blue light surrounding it, which is turned on to indicate that WiiConnect24 is in use or when a disc is either inserted or ejected (only if you've updated your firmware to version 3.0). It was thought early on that the light would remain on at all times, though this proved to be false upon the release of the console. The drive itself will take discs made specifically for it and, through backward compatibility, GameCube discs. Next to the drive is an SD card slot which is covered. Above it are the power and reset buttons, while at the bottom (next to the Wii logo) is the eject button, which will cause the game within (if there is a game within) to be ejected from the console. During gameplay you should not eject the disc, though on the Wii Menu you are free to do so. The Wii sensor bar, which comes included with the console, must be placed above or below the television you're playing on. If you change the placement of the sensor bar, it is required that you record where the sensor bar is placed for maximum performance. The AV cable and power adapter also come included with the console. Wii Remote The controller is truly what makes the system shine. Using integrated apparatuses (such as accelerometers and gyroscopes), the Wii Remote is able to sense movement in 3-D space. Using this, the Wii can simulate things such as having a sword fight, playing almost any sports game, solving puzzles, and much more. It closely resembles a television remote, designed this way on purpose in order to make it easy to relate to the familiarity of the TV remote. Its emphasis on motion sensing capabilities also help to make games less difficult and more natural, as to appeal to all groups of people. It also has various attachments which are plugged into the expansion port at the bottom of the controller. One such attachment, referred to as the Nunchuk, adds two more buttons, an analog stick, and has its own built in accelerometer. The expansion port can also allow other attachments such as the Classic Controller. The controller was formerly referred to as the Revmote by the gaming community. As the real name of the console was revealed, nowadays the controller is known as the "Wiimote", though the correct name according to Nintendo is simply "Wii Remote". All new Wii remotes come with a built in Wii MotionPlus. Games such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword need the accessory to be played. The Motion Plus was first introduced and is bundled with Wii Sports Resort. Features Wii Menu and Channels The Wii Menu is automatically launched when the player turns the Wii console on. The player will notice rectangles on the screen, each one containing a different application. The placement of the applications (channels) can be altered by pressing the A and B button at the same time while holding a cursor over one, then swapping it with another. You can not change the placement of the Disc Channel without modifications. There are various different games that the player can download through the Shop Channel, though several are already pre-loaded such as the Disc Channel, and the Mii Channel. Some channels can only be obtained by purchasing retail games such as Wii Fit or accessories such as Wii Speak, while other channels are available exclusively to certain countries. Through the Nintendo Channel, players can watch trailers of Nintendo and third party video games, download Nintendo DS demos, give surveys for games they've purchased, and watch developer videos for recently released titles. The videos that are available are different for each country. On the Message Board, which isn't technically a channel, players can post messages, send messages, receive messages from others, receive messages from Nintendo or receive messages from a video game they're playing. For example, Nintendo may send you a message regarding a firmware update, or Bonsai Barber for WiiWare may send you a message, telling you that you've missed a scheduled appointment with one of the in game characters. The Message Board also records the player's playing history (except for GameCube games). Virtual Console A built in feature of the Wii is the Wii Virtual Console. Games are available to be downloaded (for a price) from previous systems including the TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, NES, SNES, and N64. The Wii Remote is designed so, when turned sideways, closely resembles an NES controller, most likely designed with the NES in mind. Most Virtual Console games cost between 500 to 1000 Wii Points ($5 to $10 USD). The Classic Controller, a controller similar to the SNES controller, has been designed to cover all the Virtual Console systems. The Classic Controller Pro has a sleeker design, and is similar to the DualShock 2 (the PS2 controller). *List of Virtual Console titles (North America) *List of Virtual Console titles (Europe) *List of Virtual Console titles (Japan) WiiWare WiiWare is a service similar to the Virtual Console that allows users to download games made specifically for it, whereas the Virtual Console features previously made video games. WiiWare games, unlike Virtual Console titles, usually make use of the Wii's unique features and have more impressive graphics, though they usually take up more space. Both WiiWare and Virtual Console games can be placed on SD Cards and can be played from them (they must be temporarily copied to the Wii before playing them). Backward Compatibility When is was launched, the Wii was fully compatible with every GameCube game, controller, and accessory (Such as the Microphone and the DK Bongos), the only exception being the GameBoy player accessory. It is possible to play any game from the GameCube library without issue, avoiding the compatibility issues that the competing Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 had. The GameCube discs are able to be placed into the Wii's disc slot and auto-adjust to the size of the GameCube disc. The Wii includes four controller ports and two memory slots to maintain complete compatibility with the GameCube. This feature makes the Wii the first Nintendo console to have backwards compatibility with a previous console. However in late 2011, a newly redesigned model of the Wii named the Wii Family Edition was released in Europe and North America that removed this backward compatibility, although the original model is still sold alongside the newer model. Colours *Black *White *Red (bundled with New Super Mario Bros. Wii) (limited-edition) *Blue (bundled with Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games) *Lime Green (discontinued) Accessories *Wii Jacket *Operation Manual *Wii Remote *Wii Wheel (if bundled with Mario Kart) *Sensor Bar *Instruction Book (if bundled with any games) *Nunchuk *Classic Controller (sold separately) *Wii MotionPlus+ (may be sold separately) *Wii Power Supply Top Ten Best Selling Wii Games #''Wii Sports'' #''Mario Kart Wii'' #''Wii Sports Resort'' #''Wii Play'' #''New Super Mario Bros. Wii'' #''Wii Fit'' #''Wii Fit Plus'' #''Super Mario Galaxy'' #''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' #''Wii Party'' See also *List of Wii games *List of Wii accessories *WiiConnect24 *Wii Trademarks *Wii Domain Names *Wii Channel Menu *News Portal *Wii's Gallery External links *Wii Official Website *Wii Wiki fr:Wii es::Wii pt:Wii sv:Wii Category:Wii Category:Nintendo consoles